From actor Sarah Bockel, ESCAPE FROM THE HALTSBURG BOYS CHOIR's Witch

Happy tech week, Blog!

You just heard from managing director and sometime villain Jeffrey Fauver, and now, the wonderful Sarah Bockel. Sarah gets into all kinds of mischief in our little corner of the world, and we love her for it. Here's how she works her magic.

Why I spent an hour watching crazy people speak in tongues on youtube but decided on Milla Jovovich instead

Let me catch you up a little here. Back in September when I saw The Ruckus' posting for Boy Choir I was terribly excited. The project was original, a bit twisted, and most of all, a good story. I wanted to be involved and I loved the idea of boys playing girls, but when I heard there was a also witch character in the story I knew I was sold. I had just gotten back from a gig where I understudied the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz, but never got to go on. It was like fate. I had another chance at being a creepy, bizarre, witch. IT WAS MY TURN. So here I am, the luckiest girl, my wish came true and I get to play a witch. and not just any witch. A witch that speaks in TONGUES. YES my friends, tongues. I was daunted by this task. Did I need to have some kind of religious experience? Did I need to speak to a

Jesuit priest? What about chanting? would that help? But director Dan Caffrey and writer Aaron Dean soothed my fears and gave me some advice.

So, what does one do when presented with the task of playing a witch that speaks in tongues?

one goes on youtube.

DUH. that's the solution for everything. They gave some a few suggestions of where to start and here's where it led.

I started here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkn1BilNhmc
This guy was basically useless. He goes on for about 9 minutes talking about...whatever hes talking about, then FINALLY "speaks" in tongues for about 30 seconds. which does seem authentic, i guess, but not really the sound I'm looking for. Not helpful. After a few more similar videos i found this.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tuJEi255Kk&feature=related

useless.

So then my search took a turn for the scary and I stumbled upon this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4n9vK0_mdk&feature=related
The Exorcism of Emily Rose is based on this chick. That's a recording of her speaking while possessed. I...don't want to talk about this anymore, I'm getting creeped out.

At this point I needed to watch something light. Not anything to do with The Exorcist.

It was then i found my muse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fII9hH2UH8o

and this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8WLYzA0lCs&feature=related

and this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax6vcY2P_OQ&feature=related

and just for fun. this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHfpMUDrQCs&feature=related


Sigh. I think I'm in love.

It would appear that Jeffrey wrote his blog post... in character.

The Choirmaster is…lots of things. A swirling mass of contradictions.

He is perfect. Never question that. He has worked very hard to attain this perfection, and he deserves your respect.

Embroidered on his gown are some of the finest brooches and jewels from across Europe. He is beauty.

Relax, he is also kind and gentle—a cuddly teddy bear loved by all his pupils. He is admired throughout Haltsburg for his soft touch and winning smile.

Really, he is friends with all who know him.

Choirmaster is a maestro—a master of music, specializing in Austria’s most brilliant, and divinely-inspired composers.

He rewards the hard work of his pupils daily with a warm bed and nutritionally-sufficient meals.

On the other hand, he does reprimand laziness, lack of musicality and losing performances.

Ingles is his servant. Good for almost nothing, he does execute directly all punishments. Choirmaster has never laid a hand on a pupil. But--beware and always

Remember, he

Might filch from you what you cherish most,

Apprehend your young ones,

Steal them in the night and

Take from them any chance at a normal childhood or healthy adulthood.

Everything he does is for himself.

Repulsed by him you may be. But he’s got your son, and he’s never giving him back.

Jeffrey practicing!

Christine!

Again!

More tech photos!

Backstage boys choir tech week

On Inspiration and Influence, by Jason Rico

The cast and band of Escape from the Haltsburg Boys Choir get musical-y.

"Musical compositions, it should be remembered, do not inhabit certain countries, certain museums, like paintings and statues. The Mozart Quintet is not shut up in Salzburg; I have it in my pocket." - Henri Rabaud

It’s somewhat hard for me to know how to explain this from anything other than a composer’s standpoint since that is all I know, but I’m going to give it a damn good try.

Music is what feelings sound like. This is why when you hear particular pieces of music they invoke certain emotions and reactions that often times you can’t explain. As someone who creates music I feel these same things and often store these feelings in my brain for later use. This is how I get inspired by this music at a later time when I’m writing my own. It’s similar to you as an individual becoming who you are as a result of all your experiences and the people in your life who have influenced you. You are still a solitary being but people say “you have your mother’s temper” or “you have your father’s devilish humor.”

Considering we start listening to music at birth and start absorbing it and remembering it long term around the age of six or seven, I have about 25 years of aural input stored in my brain. It’s somewhat funny to me that I have become this flesh and blood encyclopedia of music. I get texts and phone calls all the time asking “what’s this piece?” And I usually know what it is and how the rest of it goes. All this wonderful knowledge that the human brain can store is waiting up in there with bated breath to pop out and influence what I put on a page.

So when you listen to the music in Escape from the Haltsburg Boys Choir, keep this in mind. Listen for Mary Poppins, South Pacific, Bach, Hill Street Blues, Samuel Barber, Kurt Weill, Gypsy, Mozart. Their notes, their rhythms impacted my life just enough to convince my pen to reuse them, reinvent them and make them relevant in a new and different way. I hope you enjoy discovering them and perhaps get some inspiration of your own to listen when influences speak to you. They make us who we are.

That's great advice, you should absolutely listen for all of that. It's wonderful. Jason's musical written with Aaron, Escape from the Haltsburg Boys Choir, opens this weekend. Don't miss it.

Aaron Dean Gets Sentimental: a blog entry by Aaron Dean

December 26th

How much is that bloggy in the the window? The one with the pompous and diluted tail? How much is that bloggy in the window, I do hope that bloggy can expound on a bunch of stuff they have no business foisting on a public sick of everyone's constant flood of half considered opinions.

Ahem. Ahem. I have been summond again, blog stars. This will be a sincere and sentimental one. Focus up the camera on my glistening, teary eyes. I am going to tell a story that will make Ryan Seacrest, Nick Cannon and even that light loafered Englishman on the dancing show do more rehearsed crying than a Godly and Creme Music videooooo!!!

My niece turned three yesterday. Yes, she was born on the Christmas, no halos, but a nice shock of red hair that is turning strawberry blonde and will no doubt be pee-wee football participation trophy gold in some time.

After a good dinner of freshly caught Northern Pike (never frozen, except if you count its time alive in the cold waters of Lake Michigan) and opening of gifts and such, my niece and I got bored with the usual red and greenery, and we picked up flashlights and crawled around on our hands and knees throughout my brother's house, and hunted creatures. When creature hunting you must crawl on your hands and knees as creatures always look straight in front of their own eyes, never down. And then you grab them by the ankles and pull. Then you put them in a sack or something. We didn't have a sack. But we didn't find any creatures either.

My niece told my sister (her ma) that she hates creatures, which she pronounces "teachers" and my sister frowned at the child's exclamation. After that misunderstanding was cleared up, we resumed our search.

We looked in the closet, the computer room, the bedrooms and the basement. We turned on no lights as this is repellent to creatures and makes them difficult to spot. Okay, we did turn on lights in the basement cuz, ya know its scary down there, and we..um...well we walked upright too cuz the floor is cold. But I'm pretty sure their were no creatures in there anyway, so...

But it was cool, becuase there were moments in her big brown eyes of sheer terror and exhiliration, because my god, what if there really are creatures. There might as well be at her age!

The line between reality and fantasy is so blurry for one so small. That flashlight she carried was really a wand. And I wish to everything that I could see what she imagined the creatures to look like.

I bet the were horrible, just horrible.

And of course I got tired, I went back to the red and greenery to sit. Mmmm, sitting.

But there were creatures to catch. And she needed me. She tugged at me, forcing my wand back into my hands, begging me to get back in the game.

I, to my shame, declined.

And so, they're out there.

She went home with her parents to bed, I stayed at my brother's (where I am blogging now) leaving her to fend for herself.

Cuz see, I'm coming back to Chicago, where I don't really need to worry about creatures.

And I have left her here.

Where her mother thinks she is saying "teachers"

I have abandoned her.

But she has her wand and her halo.

And she knows to stay low, so they can't see her.

Aaron still believes there are creatures. He put some in his play. It opens this week, and it is called Escape from the Haltsburg Boys Choir. It's wonderful. Come see it.